[3.2] Shaper = Stunned, Tidebreaker Heavy Strike Stunner Build

Hello guys, this is a guide to the stun build I've been playing for more than a year since the Legacy League. Centered around Tidebreaker and Heavy Strike, this is a solid build that can do all content and can consistently stun-lock everything including Shaper.

In this guide, the abbreviation "r.E.S.T." appears often; it stands for the "reduced Enemy Stun Threshold" modifier, a key concept in this build.

(Showcase of my collection. This is an overkill and is totally not what you need for this build.)

Overview

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Introduction

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This is a well-rounded build that can clear all content including Shaper, Elder and Uber Atziri. It's designed to have good experiences with all content in the game; making use of the stun mechanics, this build promises excellent stun capability (stun-locking even Shaper) as well as solid offense and defense.

To play this build, you can choose from 4 ascendancies (Slayer, Berserker, etc.). Heavy Strike is used both for clearing (Slayer only) and for single target. Sunder is also suggested as an alternative AoE skill (non-Slayer ascendancies).

My own character now has 7.5k life and deals 1.6 million Shaper DPS with Heavy Strike (not counting totem damage and culling).

Why Heavy Strike

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Heavy Strike deals 193.7% of base damage, this is one of the highest among all melee skills; on top of that, it has 52% chance to deal double damage (threshold jewels and helm enchant), built-in 25% r.E.S.T. and 20% stun duration (gem quality). This skill is by far the best choice for a stun build.

The downsides of this skill are:

1. It has a 100% chance to knockback.

-We reverse the direction of knockback with this glove, and now we can pull mobs closer to us.

2. It's a single target attack skill.

-We add splash effect to this skill by picking the "Impact" ascendancy node (Slayer); Ancestral Call works wonders with this combo.

*For non-Slayer classes, it's just easier to use Sunder with a secondary weapon while clearing.

Pros and Cons

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Pros:

1. Stun-locks everything. Which means:
-fun to watch mobs getting stunned;
-won't take much damage at all;
-simple and quick boss fights without needing to know what the boss does;
-can protect the whole party from dying;
-don't have to chase fleeing enemies across the map.

1. No top-tier clear speed.
2. A sudden rise in difficulty when you face enemies that you cannot stun.
3. Rely on leeching and stunning, so it's dangerous to play while lagging.
4. Weapon or gem swap is needed in certain scenarios.
5. Heavy Strike doesn't look fancy at all.
6. Tidebreaker and Kaom's Heart are not cheap, and the build can feel rippy without them.

Path of Building

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Pastebin links to this build based on my own characters (flasks reduced to non-legacy versions); Shaper DPS.

-Slayer version: https://pastebin.com/jxKaCi96

-Berserker version: https://pastebin.com/FgdHfpYs

-Ascendant version: https://pastebin.com/JFHsQ0Uc

-Champion version: https://pastebin.com/FMnPzAnD

*Currently PoB does not reflect the 3% more damage per endurance charge from Endurance Charge on Melee Stun Support, so the real DPS is 18% higher than what it is currently showing.

Videos

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Videos #1 and #2 were recorded in game version 3.1 after me obtaining the corrupted Tidebreaker. Videos #3 and #4 were recorded in game version 3.0 with a normal Tidebreaker. In 3.2, this build experienced huge buffs, and the first two videos can now definitely happen with a normal Tidebreaker.

We can play this build with either Slayer (Duelist), Berserker (Marauder), Ascendant (Scion) or Champion (Duelist). A comparison of different ascendancies is given below:

Comparison

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This choice is down to preference while I do think Slayer and Berserker are better choices. Generally, I recommend Slayer to people who are new to this build, and I recommend Berserker to people who want to push this build's limits. With good gears, all four versions will be able to stun Shaper and do most endgame content.

Slayer offers melee splash and unending leech. Due to the melee splash, Slayer can clear maps efficiently with Heavy Strike, which makes Slayer a good choice as a starter build. Any other ascendancies kind of need to swap between 2 weapons and are more expensive to fully function. The unending leech also provides safe mapping experience.

Berserker is the most aggressive version with the best boss fight performance. It has highest DPS and stun capability, as well as high mobility. This ascendancy do have the worst defense, but it can be covered by stunning everything around us.

Ascendant has even higher mobility than Berserker, and usually the reason to pick Ascendant is if you want to prioritize mapping speed (if you want to play this build with a female character).

Champion offers a good mix of offense and defense. A good reason to pick Champion, besides its good defense, is to contribute more to the squad. With the taunt (party damage buff and defense buff), the speed aura and Intimidate, this version offers the most as a team-player.

Endless Hunger + Brutal Fervour
-This is a 4 points investment for only 3 things: bleed immunity, 58% increased damage, and "life leech effects are not removed at full life". This is a solid choice especially when you're not well geared.

*If Brutal Fervour picked, you will no longer need the node with leech on the left side of Bloody Bludgeon wheel. Go from the right side with bleed chance instead.

Brutal Fervour Explained

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In this game, each hit produces an independent leech instance that leeches at 2% (affected by "#% increased life leeched per second") of max life per second; the duration of this instance is proportional to the damage dealt in this hit (affected by "#% of damage leeched as life"). Different instances stack but maximum leech rate cannot exceed 20% (affected by "+#% of maximum life per second to maximum leech rate").

So, we need to land around 10 hits to reach the maximum leech rate, which, in single target scenarios, is several seconds into the fight.

The problem here is that all the leech instances vanish when we reach full life. Let's imagine we leeched to full life and suddenly we are savagely hit down to 30% life. Now you really want to Leap Slam away, but after leaping away you're a melee character with 30% life and there are no leech instances on you.

With Brutal Fervour, when you leap away, you will still be leeching at 20% life per second (40% if Vaal Pact picked), you can see your life going up rapidly even though you're just retreating. This is a significant boost to our survival.

Overwhelm
-The stun duration is strong for boss fights and the guaranteed stun provides great defense while mapping. Also, the small node leading to Overwhelm offers 5% r.E.S.T. Good choice but only if you're not picking Brutal Fervour.

Bane of Legends
-Not too great as we already have 10% culling from the mace wheel. Pick this only if you're not picking Brutal Fervour.

Berserker

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Aspect of Carnage
-40% more damage. Must-pick.

War Bringer
-Free instant life and mana flasks, very handy in many cases. This also allows us to spam Warcry before boss fights to reach full rage stacks. Must-pick.

Crave the Slaughter
-Good boost to clear speed. Must-pick.

Pain Reaver
-Pretty useless; the only reason to pick this is for the mana leech. If you already have mana leech from your gears, you may consider picking 2 small nodes (the small node leading to Pain Reaver + the small node leading to Rite of Ruin) instead of this one.

Rite of Ruin
-This is a bad choice because the degen will no longer be manageable and Damage on Full Life cannot work anymore. Should not be considered.

Cloaked in Savagery
-Should not be considered.

Ascendant

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Champion
-Enemies take 20% increased damage. It offers the most DPS out of all choices. Must-pick.

Raider
-Onslaught and movement speed. This is the best choice in my opinion due to excellent mobility.

Path of the Duelist
-Must-pick. Marauder start is a little better, and if Berserker is chosen you should pick Path of the Marauder instead.

Trickster
-This is an alternative choice to replace Raider. It offers some DPS, life recovery speed (very useful), and infinite mana for Leap Slams.

First to Strike, Last to Fall
-Intimidate and potential Adrenaline buff. Must-pick unless picking Fortitude.

*The Adrenaline buff can be procced with a Blood Magic Support + aura combo.

Unstoppable Hero
-Offers most DPS as well as some defense. It's a good choice.

Inspirational
-I believe less effective compared to Unstoppable Hero but can be a good choice for team-play.

Fortitude
-Only pick this if you're very lazy and want this permanent Fortify; you need to give up First to Strike, Last to Fall.

*My version of Champion will still use Resolute Technique. You can also make use of crits with Champion. Many different weapons can be considered: Tidebreaker, Callinellus Malleus, Starforge, Hegemony's Era, etc. However, crit versions need Abyssus to work, which is a huge cut to our survival. Currently I am not confident if a crit version will perform better.

Debatable choices:
-Jewel sockets: you can skip those jewel sockets that require 3 passive points if you cannot afford semi-decent jewels now.
-Blunt Instrument: consider picking this wheel if you like more damage.
-Stun duration nodes in Stun Mastery wheel: to further boost stun capability when you need to.
-Mana Flows: consider picking only if you're in dire need of extra mana regen. (Mana Flows and Revelry are good nodes for early game mana sustain.)
-Life nodes near Scion start: should be how you spend your extra passive points.

About Stun Mastery

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Stun Mastery provides huge boost to your stun capability, I don't suggest picking it too early, but you will eventually need it.

The image shows the effect of an additional 15% r.E.S.T. (from Stun Mastery nodes) at given total r.E.S.T. values. When you have 115% r.E.S.T., this 15% r.E.S.T. is equivalent to having 23% more damage (in terms of stuns). Stun Mastery also provides 55% Stun Duration, which is also very important.

When you really care about stunning endgame bosses, it's even worth it to take the two Stun Duration nodes in the Stun Mastery Wheel. Considering our stun capability against endgame bosses, the 45% stun duration is almost equivalent to gaining 45% increased attack speed.

About Vaal Pact

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Consider picking Vaal Pact only if you're playing as a Slayer with Brutal Fervour picked. This is because:

1. Unless you have Brutal Fervour, Vaal Pact will disable Damage on Full Life while we are using Blood Rage.
2. Leech is not as reliable when you don't have Brutal Fervour. For detailed explanation you can read about Slayer's Brutal Fervour in the Ascendancy choice section above.

Bandits

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Berserker: Oak

Others: kill all to take 2 passive points. Oak is also okay (but only at a high level).

Pantheon

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Major God: Soul of Lunaris or Soul of Solaris.

Minor God: Soul of Tukohama or Soul of Garukhan.

Gears

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Sample Gears

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Those are the gears I used on my Berserker character in Standard. When I imported my gears into Path of Building, I manually reduced my flasks to current non-legacy versions.

-The corruptions and the Elder amulet are totally not necessary; see the Luxurious Upgrades section below for details.

-Enduring Cry is only for the Berserker version.

*This is the only place I update my items. You can trust the gems socketed from items posted in this section only.

Detailed Breakdown

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In principle, we want to cap our resists, get as much life and r.E.S.T. as possible, and get one source of mana leech from our gears.

Core Uniques

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This is the best unique weapon to use to stun enemies. Make sure you get close to perfect r.E.S.T. roll; a Tidebreaker with 420 pDPS and 30% r.E.S.T. is better than one with 430 pDPS and 27% r.E.S.T.

This jewel is basically 20% MORE damage AND we can socket 2 of this unique jewel.

This is a must-have to AoE clear with Heavy Strike. Heavy Strike has 100% knockback chance, and our Heavy Strike stuns. Without this glove the enemy will leave our attack range and we will have to move after each attack.

-If you're clearing with Sunder, you may consider switching to rare gloves (Ascendant and Champion; Insanity essence-crafted or just life and resists) or Tombfist (Berserker). You will knockback bosses after switching off Empire's Grasp so make this decision with caution.

*When fighting knockback immune bosses, for example Shaper, you can also swap to a Facebreaker with Temporal Chains corruption, it's usually very cheap.

Optional Uniques

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This is the best choice overall; note that the fire damage roll is not important at all. Loreweave, Belly of the Beast, and a rare body armour are good options when you want a 6-link.

*For any of you with a small budget, I recommend starting this build with Tabula Rasa. For details see the Budget Options section below.

We can live without it but it's best in slot. Prioritize a high r.E.S.T roll, followed by life and resist.

This should be the best option. You can also get a rare helmet, but you will have a hard time finding the correct Enchantment.

Some other choices:

The best option is a good rare belt or Doryani's Invitation with +1 endurance charge corruption; it can offer the highest number of r.E.S.T, but only when there's flask popped. Perseverance can be an option for map clearing, but not having any r.E.S.T. here can make stunning endgame bosses much tougher.

A rare amulet is a better endgame choice. This can be used as an early to mid-game option.

Abyss jewels are slightly worse than ordinary jewels in the perfect scenario, but they can be good options. Look for flat life, flat physical damage and attack speed; also get resists and attributes if needed. Some conditional effects like gain Onslaught on kill are also pretty good.

Rare Amulet/Rings

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You will want to cap your resists with your rares. Besides that, get high life rolls on every piece of rare gear as well as:

-Attributes. You want at least 111 dexterity, and you should aim for 155; you may also need intelligence.

-Flat physical damage. It's not important; it's a useful but expensive prefix to have. So, go for it if you're rich, ignore it if you're poor.

Resist Cap

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We get +1% maximum fire resist from the Barbarism cluster.

The absolute minimum you should have are 52%/51%/51%; this allows capped resists with 6 endurance charges. However, there is no guarantee that we always have 6 endurance charges, so you definitely want more than these.

I recommend getting 76%/75%/75%, this allows capped resists without needing any endurance charges. You can also aim for 86%/85%/85%, this allows capped resists with 6 endurance charges in a Elemental Weakness map.

Rare Belt

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Best belt base is no doubt Stygian Vise (Abyss belt), followed by Studded Belt.

You want T1 r.E.S.T. (14-15%). Then focus on high tier life, stun duration and resist mods.

You might want to essence-craft your belt with either Loathing or Scorn if you feel rich.

Flasks

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Lion's Roar is a must-have and Atziri's Promise is a good cheap flask. Don't worry about Sin's Rebirth and Taste of Hate if you cannot afford those, Silver flask can be a good substitute (not for Ascendant, due to having permanent Onslaught already).

The Writhing Jar can be useful for Slayer to proc Headsman ascendancy.

During mapping, you will want 2 flasks to deal with freeze and bleed.

Budget Options

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This build scales linearly with item progression. You can start this build with leveling items and gradually reach its full potential with around 10 exalts (mostly for a Tidebreaker, Kaom's Heart and getting a 6-link). Here is an example of how to progress with this build:

1st stage. Now you have finished the story line. Get a Tidebreaker if you can; if it's expensive, buy Kongor's Undying Rage or Brain Rattler. Get a Tabula Rasa or a 5-link rare body armour. Get Redblade Tramplers if you can. Get a good rare belt. Get good amulet and rings with decent life and resist rolls; make sure that you have your resists capped. At this moment, you're still just playing a Sunder 2h-mace build and you should be able to at least do most white maps.

2nd stage. As you started farming currencies in maps, now you want to have the following items if you haven't already: Tidebreaker, Redblade Tramplers, Devoto's Devotion, Empire's Grasp, 2 * Weight of the Empire. You can also consider buying Atziri's Promise and Lion's Roar. Now we are starting to use Heavy Strike and transition to a real stun build. Now you should not have any problems with yellow maps and can start to challenge red maps.

3rd stage. Get a 5-link on your Tidebreaker, then save for a Kaom's Heart. You may get a Belly of the Beast temporarily (if it's cheap) while saving up for a Kaom's Heart. Meanwhile, watch the market and try to get a Devoto's Devotion with Heavy Strike 12% enchant. Upgrade your amulet, rings and belt if your previous ones are poorly rolled. Now you should be able to farm most red maps.

4th stage. Get a 6-link Tidebreaker and put your previous 5-link Tidebreaker in your secondary weapon slot. If you feel rich, you can 6-link both Tidebreakers. Now I would say this build is complete. With enough practice, you should be able to stun-lock and kill almost all endgame bosses.

5th stage. See the Luxurious Upgrades section. There is a small room for you to further optimize your build with luxurious items.

6th stage (non-existent). Most builds, namely bow builds and crit-based builds demand very high-end Mirror worthy gears to achieve their full potential. It's common to see a Mirrored Opal ring providing 20-30% DPS boost to those builds. This is not the case for our build. With semi-decent items you will be able to do most content with this build.

Luxurious Upgrades

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1. What you need for good endgame (Shaper/Guardians) performance:

-20% quality on relevant gems. Typically, it's around 1.3% more damage per gem. (Quality bonuses on some gems can be totally useless, check Wiki before making investments.)
-A 6-link Tidebreaker; equivalent to 31% more damage from putting in Maim Support, compared to a 5-link weapon.
-"Heavy Strike has a 12% chance to deal double damage" enchant on Devoto's Devotion; this is equivalent to 8.6% more damage.

2. How to further optimize performance:

-Curse corruption on Empire's Grasp: Vulnerability curse gives 3-4% more damage against Shaper/Guardians, around 20% more damage against trash mobs (significant clear speed boost).
-"+1 maximum frenzy charge" corruption on Redblade Trampler; this is equivalent to around 5% more damage. Or a "16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently" enchant; if you can manage to activate this effect, it's also equivalent to 5% more damage.
-Sin's Rebirth and Taste of Hate flasks; equivalent to 11.4% and 7.2% (10.7% if legacy version) burst damage respectively.
-"Gain #% of X damage as extra Y damage" Shaped/Elder mods on amulet; equivalent to up to 7% more damage.

*Having an aurabot friend: 20-30% more damage. Such a small number because some damage auras like Anger and Wrath are almost totally useless, providing around 2-3% effective DPS only.

3. What you don't need:

-Lvl 21 Heavy Strike: only 1.2% more damage.
-Lvl 21 Support gems: only 0.67% more damage or less for each lvl 21 support gem.
-Stun Support corruption on Tidebreaker: for stunning, equivalent to around 40% more damage. But no real DPS boost. Good effect but hard to get; it's usually an overkill.

Gem Setup

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Below I'll talk about the skill gems for this build. For a quick view, you can also view my gems from the Sample Gears section above.

-Slayer should use this Heavy Strike AoE setup to clear; Other ascendancy choices should just use Sunder.

-Ideally, you want to have 2 Tidebreakers for the single target and AoE setups separately. If you don't, you just need to do gem swap (especially Multistrike -> Bloodlust) when fighting challenging bosses.

Support Gems Explained

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1. Melee Physical Damage offers 49% more damage. This is a brainless choice.

2. Ruthless Support offers 37.7% more damage on average; but more importantly, Ruthless Blow significantly boosts our stun capability. This is also a brainless choice.

3. Bloodlust offers 59% more damage but requires bleed which is applied by totem; thus, it's very good in boss fights only. Multistrike offers 35.8% more DPS but reduces our damage per hit and dramatically lowers our stun capability; thus, it's only good for clearing (or can be used against stun immune bosses). It's common to swap between these 2 gems.

4. Damage on Full Life offers 49% more damage but only when we're at full life. Maim Support offers 30% more damage as well as 30% chance to apply a debuff making the enemy taking 14% increased physical damage. They are not so great but are good choices for the 5th and 6th gem slots.

5. Other gems like Brutality, Stun Support, Ancestral Call can be used accordingly; replace Maim or Damage on Full Life with these.

*Added Fire Damage or Faster Attacks should never be considered.

How is Bloodlust enabled

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As long as we get some chance to bleed on hit, our totem (as well as Frenzy and Leap Slam) will apply bleed to the enemy.

We have 15% bleed chance from the Bloody Bludgeon wheel and another 25% bleed chance added to totem from the Chance to Bleed Support. (The Vulnerability curse also gives 30% chance to bleed. But against Shaper/Guardians, there is only 6% bleed chance due to reduced curse effect.)

So our Frenzy has 15% (21% with Vulnerability) bleed chance, and our totem has 40% (46% with Vulnerability). This is more than enough to keep bleed up against enemies.

Will my Damage on Full Life work

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As long as you have enough regen or leech (Slayer with Brutal Fervour only) to compensate for your hp loss from Blood Rage and rage stacks (Berserker), you will be at full life and Damage on Full Life will work.

1. Besides Berserker, Damage on Full Life will always work unless Vaal Pact is picked without picking Brutal Fervour (Slayer).

2. Sometimes you see yourself at near full life with Blood Rage on, this is a display bug and Damage on Full Life is still effective.

3. For Berserker, you need to calculate your total regen and degen carefully. If you follow my setup strictly, Damage on Full Life will be active.

Our build aims to achieve 130% r.E.S.T., and with Stun Support, we gain additional 49%; this is equivalent to gaining 61% more damage considering our stun capability. If you have more r.E.S.T., Stun Support is less effective; if less r.E.S.T., it's more effective.

61% sounds like a good number but Stun Support offers no DPS. Only use Stun Support (take out Damage on Full Life or Maim Support) in tough boss fights when you want to guarantee stun-locking.

Leap Slam / Frenzy 4L:

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Frenzy + Fortify + Faster Attacks + Leap Slam

-Leap Slam with Faster Attacks and Fortify as our movement skill.

-Frenzy is used in boss fights to keep up frenzy charges and Fortify buff. This is crucial to our boss fight performance.

About Frenzy

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Many builds don't bother to run another Frenzy skill to generate frenzy charges in boss fights. This is because:

1. Most other builds need to stay alarmed watching boss's attacks; they don't want to make their fight more complicated by adding one more skill into their skill rotation.

2. It can be more time efficient to just use their main damage skills.

For our build, we should be using this Frenzy setup because:

1. As long as we stun-lock, we already win most boss fights. The fight will be as simple as holding Heavy Strike, so using Frenzy occasionally doesn't hurt.

2. A good portion of our damage comes from the boss being inflicted with bleed and Maim Support debuff from our totem. It usually takes a second or two before both debuffs are applied. So even if we use Heavy Strike during the first couple of seconds, we may fail to stun the boss anyway. It's very efficient to use Frenzy during the start of the fight while waiting for our totem to apply bleed and Maim Support debuff, then use Heavy Strike to stun-lock the boss to death.

Totem 3L:

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Ancestral Warchief + Maim + Chance to Bleed

-This totem provides damage buff from Warchief, bleed to enable Bloodlust and Maim Support debuff for more damage. We should always keep the totem up during boss fights. Bleed is applied because we get 25% chance to bleed from the Bloody Bludgeon wheel plus another 25% from Chance to Bleed Support.

Utility:

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Auras: Hatred, Herald of Ash

Buffs: Blood Rage, Enduring Cry (Berserker only)

-For the pure physical version, swap out Hatred and Herald of Ash, then pick two from Haste, Arctic Armour and Blasphemy.

*For non-Berserker ascendancies, Enduring Cry may still be used in very special occassions (when fighting enemies that cannot be stunned) to generate and maintain endurance charges.

After setting up all the necessary gems, you may still have up to 2 gem slots left; you can pick from the alternatives recommended above or run any gems of your preference.

6L Body Armour

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The gem setup above is designed for Kaom's Heart, which has no sockets on the body armour. If you don't like Kaom's Heart and decide to use other chest, you will have an additional 6-link. Here are my suggestions:

3. You can put your alternative damage setup (single target or AoE) here, so you don't have to do weapon swap.

Pure Physical Version

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You may choose to run Brutality Support instead of Maim or Damage on Full Life and deal pure physical damage with this build. You will give up Hatred and Herald of Ash, and choose from Haste, Arctic Armour and Blasphemy. You also need to give up Sin's Rebirth, Atziri's Promise and Taste of Hate (you can pick up Silver flask).

Hatred and Herald of Ash give 51% added elemental damage. However, against Shaper/Guardians, our elemental damage is 60% effective, while physical damage is 120% effective. So, this 51% elemental damage is equivalent to 25.5% more damage. Replacing maybe Maim Support (30% more damage) with Brutality (59% more damage) provides 22.3% more damage. So, after counting the effect of Haste, you can expect slightly higher DPS with the pure physical version when flasks are not considered.

The major advantage of running the pure physical version is that you will be able to run defensive or utility auras. Haste is nice for the speed; Arctic Armour provides some additional survival; Blasphemy + maybe Vulnerability or Temporal Chains offers good offense/defense.

The major drawback of the pure physical version is that you will lose a lot of burst damage from expensive flasks (Sin's Rebirth, Taste of Hate). You will also lose the nice AoE clear from Herald of Ash.

In Hardcore, the pure physical version is usually better. In Softcore, the pure physical version is a better choice if:
1. you have a 6-link;
2. you don't want to use damage flasks besides Lion's Roar;
3. you're not clearing with Heavy Strike and don't need the extended AoE radius due to Herald of Ash;
4. you don't want to use Stun Support.

*You only need to swap gems to change between both versions. Therefore, you can always use one version for some content, then use another version for some other content.

Curse Discussion

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Due to Shaper/Guardians taking only 20% of curse effects, curses are not very effective during boss fights.

For this build, Vulnerability can be a huge boost to clear speed (not reliable if triggered by CWDT) and is the best choice overall. Temporal Chains provides some defense and prolongs the duration of stuns, so it's also viable.

Both curses can be applied via glove corruption. If you can't afford one, choose either CWDT or Blasphemy (or just don't run any curses).

Warlord's Mark should not be considered.

Against Shaper, the best curse to run is Temporal Chains due to the prolonged stun duration.

With 130% r.E.S.T., defender's effective max life is reduced to 7.8% of their life pool, thus if we deal damage equivalent to 0.78% of the target's max life, this hit will have a chance to land a stun.

Life pool of endgame bosses according to PoEDB:
-T15 boss: 3 million
-Uber Izaro: 4 million
-Elder Guardians: 8 million
-Guardians: 10-12 million
-Elder: 16 million
-Shaper: 20 million

So, to possibly stun Shaper, we need 156k damage in one hit. To guarantee a stun on Shaper, we need 780k damage in one hit.

According to Path of Building, my Berserker's damage per hit is at 156k to 501k (outdated data). In PoB, chance to deal double damage and Ruthless Blow are calculated improperly, and the real damage range is 75k to 1025k. Thus, my high roll hits are more than enough to guarantee stuns on Shaper.

*With Stun Support, it's even easier to stun Shaper, but you will lose some DPS. You also should replace Empire's Grasp with Facebreaker for Shaper fight, which offers 10% additional r.E.S.T.

Attack in Place Trick

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While clearing with Heavy Strike, the best strategy is to Leap Slam to the center of packs. However, When you press Heavy Strike you may start to move instead of attack (if you aim too far away). Here is a trick especially handy in this scenario:

1. go to your key binding settings and set this attack in place key to any number in your number pad;
2. hold this key;
3. press Num Lk (to disable number pad).

Now for the rest of this game you will always attack in place, and your Heavy Strike will work 100% of the time.

If you're not clearing with Heavy Strike, and are not using Empire's Grasp, this trick may backfire. (Because you will not automatically follow your enemies when you knock them back.)

Boots Swap Trick

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Swap on this pair of boots before boss fights to gain up to maximum endurance and frenzy charges; swap back to Redblade Tramplers before triggering the boss fight. Of course you won't want to bother applying this trick unless you're facing challenging bosses like Shaper.

Boss-fight Tactics

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The general strategy is to cast Blood Rage, place totem near the boss, use Frenzy several times to reach maximum frenzy charges and gain Fortify (and meanwhile totem applies bleed and Maim Support debuff), then pop damage flasks and stun-lock the boss to death.

*Berserker may not be able to sustain full life for Damage on Full Life Support when there are 0 endurance charges. If this is the case, you should start boss fights without Blood Rage.

Below are the only complicated boss fights with this build, and I'll share my experiences. Besides those bosses, almost all other bosses including the Elder and Uber Izaro can be killed brainlessly by just stun-locking them.

Shaper: The strategy is simple, catch a good timing (when Shaper casts beam, for example) to pop all damage flask and go for a long-time stun-locking. If you are failing to stun-lock, just play safe and slow.

Trio: This fight can be tricky. I found it easiest to use Sunder and kite the bosses; this way you can control which boss to be the remaining last boss. You can also stun all three and burst down two of them. The last boss remaining is stun immune (I'm not 100% sure), so kill the ranged female boss first, play carefully and take your time.

Uber Atziri: During the normal phase just avoid all the circles (Storm Call and Flameblast); Atziri during the normal phase cannot be stunned so use Multistrike Support and play safe. During the split phase, place your totem at the center, stay far away from the center and run in circles. You will successfully dodge the first Flameblast this way. Now find the Flameblast clone, pop damage flasks and stun-lock her. Because of stun-locking no more Flameblast will occur and you can burst this clone down safely.

Phoenix: This boss cannot be killed just be standing still and stun-locking. The adds will deal too much damage and we should kill those adds right after they respawn. Because it's easy to dodge boss's attacks, I find it easier to use Sunder with Multistrike and totally forget about stunning. Just keep killing the adds and kill the boss as if you're playing a normal build.

Minotaur: This boss is immune to bleed and stun. Usually I bring 2 Lion's Roar and 2 Basalt flasks, and switch Bloodlust to Multistrike. We just need to face-tank for 10+ seconds and we can kill the boss while standing in the stone circle. If you're not well geared you need move away from stone circles and play a bit smarter.

List of Stun Immune Bosses

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1. Minotaur
2. Atziri
3. Rigward
4. Kitava
5. Argus
6. Trio

*The mirror held by Atziri is what makes her stun immune, so during the clone phase, all other 3 clones besides the one holding the mirror can be stunned.

*The final boss of the Trio fight is found to be stun immune. I haven't seen any official confirmation and am not 100% sure.

None of these fights are tough (Rigward might be the toughest one). For Rigward and Kitava, just familiarize yourself with the boss mechanics. Argus should be easily rushed down with flasks.

This is the end of the guide. As I'm still playing this build, I'll keep updating this thread and present the finest version of this build. I welcome all sorts of discussions, so feel free to leave comments down below if you have any questions or suggestions.

Simulation Code

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Path of Building can do all the math besides simulating stuns, so I wrote this code to give a good insight into our stun capability. This code simulates different boss fights and evaluates our stun capability.

The code tells me that against Shaper, this build (without Tidebreaker corruption) has:

-Over 99% stun up-time. This means that if Shaper just stands still for me to hit for 10000 seconds, there will be on average less than 100 seconds when Shaper is not stunned.

-Over 80% chance of perfect stun-locking. This means that if I challenge Shaper's each phase 10000 times, then there will be over 8000 times when Shaper is stun-locked from the beginning to the end.

Here's my code written in Python. You can run the code directly from the repl.it link.

Since the Juggernaut buff many people are hyped about trying it out as a stun build. However, I believe Juggernaut does not fit the overall theme of a stun build, and has a very mediocre power level.

Unflinching and Unyielding have a ton of texts, and is the major reason people are hyped about Juggernaut as a stunner. However, if we look into it carefully, it offers only 4 things (counting 3 extra charges from the passive tree): massive endurance charge generation (which we don't need), 4% increased physical damage reduction (due to +1 charge), 3% more damage (due to ECoMS Support and +1 charge), 35% increased damage and 90% increased stun duration. How good are these bonuses? Very mediocre. This (Unflinching and Unyielding, 4 ascendancy points in total) is strictly worse than Slayer's Overwhelm, which only takes 2 ascendancy points (and is only an optional pick for Slayer).

Then we look at Undeniable. This is the only solid reason to start a stun build with Juggernaut, and that is to build around crit. However, there is just a better crit build option and that's Champion. Champion makes taunted enemies cannot evade, and that's strictly better than the Undeniable node Juggernaut has. Even with Champion, it's hard to build up crit because Tidebreaker is a 5% crit chance mace, and there are not any mace passive wheels that offer anything related to crit.

The other ascendancy notables, Unstoppable, Unbreakable and Unrelenting are all about speed and defense. They are not bad but doesn't fit too well with the theme of a stun build.

Guide Changelog

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03/18/18: some minor changes.
03/06/18: Recommending Kongor's Undying Rage and Brain Rattler instead of Marohi Erqi in the Budget Options section.
03/04/18: Berserker version is now choosing Oak's bonus as the bandit choice and picking the 0.8% life regen passive node (instead of 4% life) near Marauder start.
03/03/18: Now picking extra endurance charges in the tree; no longer running CWDT-Immortal Call setup or Soul of Arakaali Pantheon.
...
03/02/18: Patch 3.2 launched. This build was heavily buffed.
12/08/17: Patch 3.1 launched. This build was slightly buffed.
08/04/17: Patch 3.0 launched. Ruthless gem came out and made stun-locking Shaper possible with this build.
03/16/17: Build posted. Decided to post after I stun-locked a tier 15 boss to death.
03/03/17: Legacy League launched and Tidebreaker came out. I started leveling my first stunner.
02/20/17: Tidebreaker revealed. Build planning started.

Acknowledgement

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During the creation of this build, I had wonderful discussions with Thorminathor and Lokiwider, which were crucial to the initial success of this build. I must also acknowledge all that responded with your questions and suggestions for your contributions to this build's further refinement.

This looks really good, i would really want to try this out onece i finish farming my currencies
Just one thing, the belt Perseverance will completely disable if you have iron reflex, since your evasion rating became 0, but i guess it's still worth it since the other stats are just as juicy

Now im think to use champion and maximize the value of the belt, and wondering if armor+evasion build would ever work

This looks really good, i would really want to try this out onece i finish farming my currencies
Just one thing, the belt Perseverance will completely disable if you have iron reflex, since your evasion rating became 0, but i guess it's still worth it since the other stats are just as juicy

Now im think to use champion and maximize the value of the belt, and wondering if armor+evasion build would ever work

Yes, the attack speed bonus from belt Perseverance will be completely disabled. I picked up this belt simply for the fortify and onslaught effect it provides (other stats are also pretty good).

Champion can work too, but I personally don't recommend. Unless you are going to put a 6L AOE skill on your body armour, you will need the melee splash that Slayer ascendancy provides (also 20% culling and some stun duration can be very handy).

As for armor+evasion build, I think it's viable, but you need to keep in mind: if you fail to stack a good amount of armor, it almost does nothing against large hits; evasion can still be effective without stacking too much of it. So I would suggest focusing on armor while grabbing some evasion if you can.

EDIT: If you're reading this, you should be aware that those responses were written in March, 2017. The build was very different back then and any information here can be very misleading.

I was considering something like that as a Berserker. But I find that 200DPS is more than I anticipated. Can you list what did the biggest difference?

Without any auras and buffs, my character has only 40k+ tooltip DPS. But there are a lot of factors that can add to it.

1. My tooltip DPS does not take into account the threshold jewels. From 2 threshold jewels and helmet enchantment, we can have 52% chance to deal double damage with our Heavy Strike. That is 52% MORE dmg.
2. 50% increased damage at 5 endurance charges (from Tidebreaker), and 20% MORE damage and 20% attack speed at 5 frenzy charges.
3. Onslaught buff (from Perseverance), Hatred aura, blood rage buff, and increased physical dmg while leeching.
4. From the Warchief totem, we will have a 18% MORE damage buff. Also the totem itself deals around 1/6 of our own dmg with only one faster attacks support. (If replacing Kaom's Heart with a 6L rare body armour, the totem itself can deal more than 10k. Then our total DPS can reach 300K.)

In maps, when buffs are up, my tooltip goes up to 120K. After manually counting the effect of threshold jewels it's already 18K (not counting warchief dmg). Remember some of my gears are 1c items and many of my gems are 19/0. So we can expect way more than 200K DPS with good gears.

My calculations didn't take into account the 20% culling from Slayer ascendancy. If you wish to count that, multiply the 200K by another 125%.

EDIT: If you're reading this, you should be aware that those responses were written in March, 2017. The build was very different back then and any information here can be very misleading.

Hey man, leveled this toon, 70 for now, but clear speed is like real slow, at least if you want to clear a lot of maps, would AoE improve this? any ideas on how to clear faster? I already have the slayer ascendancy.

I was wondering if this works with a 5 link Tidebreaker?
if so what skill would you drop in the 6 link for it
here's my tidebreaker

Only 4 gems are necessary. First 3 are Heavy Strike, Melee Phy Dmg, Added Fire Dmg; the 4th link is Multistrike for dps or Stun Support for stuns. For the 5th/6th links, you can choose from Faster Attacks, Melee Dmg on Full Life or Weapon Elemental Dmg depending on your gears and encounter.

A 5 link Tidebreaker is good enough. You lose about 20% of dmg compared to a 6 link weapon, but everything else works well.

EDIT: If you're reading this, you should be aware that those responses were written in March, 2017. The build was very different back then and any information here can be very misleading.